That kid-in-a-candy-store feeling

Mark Mamrot was a science major in 2005 when art changed his life forever. He and his wife, Kaew Pongpaet, fell in love with the work their artist-friend was doing at the time, so they experimented with printing his work on to tees, and selling at their local markets.

And sell, they did. Mark and Kaew quickly doubled their initial $2,000 investment (giving their friend a percentage of the sales) and they continued to grow apace.

They brought on more artists, took their products to more markets and boutiques around Australia, and in late 2008, opened the first Monsterthreads store.

Ten years later, the company operates 10 stores (employing roughly 45 staff) and supplies 100 third-party retailers

Boring Retail Is Dead

So how did Mark and Kaew create such an appealing and fast-growing brand?

Part of it, as Mark says, comes down to the “four greats” of brick-and-mortar: great products, great window displays, great attention to detail and great customer service.

“Boring is dead in bricks retail,” Mark adds. “You need something that grabs people’s attention, without being tacky…recreating that ‘kid in a candy store’ feel for adults that gets you excited about being there. That can be rare in retail and keeps customers coming back for more.”

Monsterthreads weaves their “creative culture” into its entire business, from the people they hire—including artists who make extra money selling their designs under the company label—to the products they sell through all their channels.

The Complexity of Success

Monsterthreads used a desktop-based inventory management software that didn’t integrate in real-time with its locations, online channels and warehouse. That created inefficient workflows that got in the way of brand growth.

“We would be packing stock that a shop already had because their stock hadn’t been reported to the database yet,” Mark says. “It definitely cost us. In the end, we are a team and we got through, but that was at the expense of time that could have been better spent on more value-added work in the business. We simply couldn’t grow further with that system.”

How Cin7 Helps Monsterthreads

Monsterthreads switched to Cin7 in 2018. It uses Cin7’s built-in POS system and B2B Ecommerce website, warehouse features, Shopify and shipping integration and more to manage stock and orders across the entire business.

“Cin7 is one of the few off-the-shelf solutions supporting a business that does it all: multi-site retail, wholesale and online,” Mark says. “It integrates our sales centers with Xero, our CRM and shipping tools, helping us get most processes done quicker. It speeds up our background processes so we can focus on our core business goals and gives us the space to focus less on the system and more on the business.”

Cin7’s integrations, automated processes and mobility have proven key for Monsterthreads to take their business to the next step, adding new locations, adding more creative products, building up its online business and building its overseas customer base.

“All in all, the implementation will allow us to more easily scale our business going forward,” Mark says. “We are excited about taking the business to the next level, as it will allow us to create more exciting products and experiences for our customers.